


Pulling At the Strings

by SuperSmallFryDoodle



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Assasins, F/M, Kidnapped, Missing, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-31 22:42:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15129329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperSmallFryDoodle/pseuds/SuperSmallFryDoodle
Summary: Wally West was retired, he'd quit the game almost dying once was one thing but he was done. However the work was clearly against them at this moment as Nightwing and Nightengale are in deeper than they've ever been and they need help.





	Pulling At the Strings

Wally could feel his heart thud in his chest as he ran for his life not knowing what he was running from or why but he knew it was catching up with him, fast.

He could feel attacks from all around him eating away at the little strength he had left, until… he felt nothing at all.

Like he was floating away in the breeze as if there was nothing left of him.

~

Wally gasped sitting straight up in bed, his chest heaving as his eyes darted around the room. He shivered from the cold sweat on his brow as the nightmare slowly began to fade from his mind.

Pulling his knees to his chest, he rests his forehead on them finally letting himself relax a little.It was over, he was safe with his girlfriend, and more importantly, Wally was here and alive.

No more floating around space waiting for someone to put him back together, they were safe.

He felt his brain floating back to reality when his ears picked up a sound he couldn’t quite place. Raising his head from his knees, he looked around recognizing that it was the buzzing of his phone. Picking it up he groaned recognizing a familiar caller ID flash across the screen.

He’d let it go to voice mail, they’d got out of that gig and in no way interested in getting dragged back in, not after all that had happened.

The phone went silent, and Wally decided to lay down and see if he could get some more sleep, but the buzzing picked up again.

 He laughed bitterly feeling a little nostalgic remember that Batman was nothing if not persistent. Wally’s nerves were set on edge knowing Batman didn’t play around…something must be seriously wrong.

Wally cursed, picking up the phone, “What you possibly need?” He hissed, lashing out a little out of frustration. He didn’t mean to be quite so rud but hey it was late, and he was so not in the mood for this.

“Nightwing and Nightengale are missing?” Batman answered, seemingly unphased by the attitude, getting straight to the point a per usual.

Wally rolled his eyes,” I hate to break the news to you Bats…” He told him rubbing the bridge of his nose frustrated,” But they disappear a lot, and just because they haven’t checked in with you doesn’t mean they’re missing.” He grumbled,” Besides it’s not like Wing, and I were on the best terms last time I checked.”

To be honest, Wally was a little bitter about that, Dick was one of his closest friends, and the man hadn’t even bothered to check on him since he’d been back.

“That may be true, but we both know Dick reports back to his team regularly, especially if the mission is risky.” Batman answered, unphased by the colder response to his ward. “It’s been over a month since they last checked in with the team or the rest of the league, including me.”

This made his blood run cold, as he put a hand over his mouth. Dick and Maggie had willingly taken over the team after Aqualad stepped down so that Artemis and Wally could retire. They’d never slack off or abandon that responsibility without a word.

“Jesus, you’re only telling me about this now.” He said, stumbling out of bed digging through his closet for his suit. “I could already be there.”

“Barry suggested I give you time to adjust.” He answered,” We’ll see you at the Cave.” Batman said, ending the call with a click

Wally wasn’t sure how he felt throwing himself back into the line of duty…but he couldn’t just abandon his friends. Not after all the times, they’d had his back.

“Wally?” He turned finding Artemis sitting up and bed rubbing her eyes. Shit, he’d completely forgotten about Artemis, feeling like hitting himself. He couldn’t imagine how she’d feel waking up, not knowing where he’d gone.

“Where are you off to in a hurry?” She asked, warily eyeing his suit. Wally sighed, he wasn’t going to lie, that’s how things go wrong, “Gale and Wing are missing so Batman’s calling in the troops.” He said, trying to act casual so not to worry his girlfriend.

“Don’t downplay things with me.” Artemis glared, he should have known she was too smart for that,” It’s bad isn’t it otherwise you wouldn’t go.”

Wally sighed wondering how he’d gotten a girlfriend who knew him so well. “They’ve been gone for almost a month.” He said stepping into the super suit lent him by Barry, for just in case,” You know Wing checks in, he doesn’t just disappear without a trace.”

“Then we better get going,” Artemis said, getting her own suit, the green fabric feeling foreign in her hands as she never thought she’d wear it again.

“No babe…” He said running his fingers through his red hair,” You don’t have to we’ve worked so hard to get out of this business.” He was cut off with Artemis captured his lips with her own.

Pulling away she grinned cheekily “We’re a package deal,” She told him, grinning cheekily,” Besides they’re my friends too.”

Wally nodded, “Let's get going.” He said as they disappeared into the night.

~

They were greeted by many familiar faces, glad to see Wally back in the game, and the stone-faced Batman. Wally knew him well enough to see the subtle tells of worry in his features.

Things were bad, he could see the Young Justice members lurking, looking for any information. They knew something was wrong.

Batman raised an eyebrow obviously noticing them“Let’s talk somewhere a little more private.” He said walking away, leaving Wally and Artemis to catch up.

Wally looked around, knowing they said they were gonna got underground he just didn’t know how far underground they were going. The new base was impressive, still lovingly taking on the nickname, the cave.

It almost made him want to come back to heroing…you know except for the always almost dying part.

They sat in a conference room, made to hold many people but it was just the three of them. The emptiness was a little unsettling.

Batman pulled up the missing hero’s profiles on a screen. “Due to recent metahuman trafficking, Nightwing and Nightengale were sent on a mission to check out lead.” He said,” Rumors were that a trafficking operation was being run out of an abandoned factory, in Bludhaven.”

Wally nodded along briefly remembering hearing a little bit about the metagene crisis and the trafficking of metahumans on the news.

“I’m assuming you’ve already ruled out all the obvious suspects.” Wally said, knowing if he knew who it was, they’d be hot on their tail.

“No Nightwing was unable to relay that information before going missing.” Batman stated, no emotion leaking into his voice at all,” They were, however, able to confirm that this wasn’t metagene trafficking.”

He paused momentarily before continuing,” More so a group of assassins looking for recruitments.”

Wally listened intently, knowing a little bit about assassins from Dick recounts of the Court of Owls, he knew that it couldn’t be anything good if they were recruiting.

“The group calls themselves the face cards, leaving a playing card at their hits as a sort of signature.” He brought up some poor quality images of some costumed villains,” They were able to confirm a leader, but no identity, someone that call themselves the Red King.”

Wally wrinkled at the image quality, it showed a figure wearing a mask looking almost like the face you’d see on a playing card, but with a twisted quality to it, dark red slashes covering the mask and a fedora placed on their head, “He sure looks pleasant…”

If Batman heard, Flashes comment he showed no signs of it,” Another person to be wary of is the Puppeteer, the Red Kings right-hand man.”

The name was fitting as the person wore a painted marionette mask their limbs almost looking like the limbs of a puppet,” Look’s more like a puppet than a puppeteer.”

“Don’t underestimate this person, it was reported in that they have…a way of getting in people heads.” Batman said, the pause making Wally uncomfortable.

“In what kind of way?” Artemis asked, her eyes trained and focused, Wally admired her calmness,” Are we looking at someone with powers similar to Ms. Martian?”

“Nightwing wasn’t able to confirm, but he and Gale had their suspicions.” Batman confirmed Artemis’s inquiry,” I’m counting on you two to take charge of the team to pick up where they let off.”

Wally was outraged,” Shouldn’t we be looking for them.” He blurted out, covering his mouth trying not to let nausea overtake him.

“That’s what I’ll be doing.” Batman explained,” Though it’s safer to get more information before going in, maybe you’ll find out what happened along the way.” And with that Batman left the room.

Wally wasn’t sure about how he felt about all of this but a comforting pressure on his shoulder, looking to find his girlfriend’s sympathetic gaze,” Hey, he’ll be fine.”

Taking a deep breath Wally nodded,” You’re right, let’s go gather the team.” He said,” They need to be debriefed on the situation.”

**Author's Note:**

> I know I have unfinished fics...I'll get back to them...eventually...


End file.
